Does Height Reveal Style Essences?
Does your height reveal your style essences?
Short answer: not directly—but it can be a helpful clue.
Here’s some observations about height and style essences:
1) There’s no direct relationship
A person’s height doesn’t reliably predict their facial features—or vice versa.
That probably needs around zero explanation, but here’s a quick visual one:
Can we discern this model’s height just from a face photo? Obviously not!
This model might be tall, short, or average height—we really can’t say from just a headshot.
Similarly, if I tell you that my friend is six feet tall, you probably wouldn’t reply, “Cool, now I basically know what their face looks like!”
Takeaway: Height doesn’t tell you what people’s facial features look like, and so height can’t directly determine style essences.
But:
2) Tall people sometimes have elongated essences
If we look at, say, the Ethereal Dramatic and Dramatic Natural Pinterest boards, those celebrities are tall on average.
And that makes sense. It doesn’t seem outlandish to say that people with elongated style essences often have tall bodies.
But, there’s so many exceptions.
Dramatic Natural Sarah Jessica Parker, for instance, is only 5'3." If we used her height as a guide for her essences, we might conclude she's highly Gamine or Ingenue.
But those essences don’t capture her striking and carefree beauty:
SJP may be short, but she’s amazing in long, sleek Dramatic hair with a bit of an undone Natural texture.
Gamine-heavy style (a shirt with a high neckline, graphic stripes, and pointy collar) doesn’t connect to her beauty (admittedly the wavy hair is distracting here, too).
And SJP isn’t an isolated case of elongated essences being paired with short stature. She’s in the company of fellow Dramatic Natural Sarah Levy, who’s also only 5’3’’.
Takeaway: While people with elongated essence blends might be tall on average, there’s plenty of exceptions. So again, height isn’t a shortcut to determining style type.
3) Gamines and Ingenues aren’t necessarily short
Despite being around 5’8’’, Mariah Carey has said that people often assume she’s petite.
From a style analysis perspective, that makes total sense, because Mariah is a Romantic Gamine Ingenue.
So people may assume that her relatively compact-appearing facial features are paired with a short body:
Mariah Carey has a lot of alluring Romantic and is flattered by elaborate, hair, makeup, and necklines—but even though her Romantic is more emphasized here, we still sense her sweet and youthful beauty.
So having Gamine and Ingenue likely makes people assume she’s much shorter than she is.
A related example: Romantic Classic Gamine Audrey Hepburn. With her compact facial features, she’s great in baby bangs and very cropped silhouettes—despite being 5’7’’.
Takeaway: Tall people don’t necessarily have any Ethereal, Dramatic, or Natural, and they can absolutely still have a lot of Gamine, Ingenue, Romantic, or Classic.
4) Face length may be a better clue than height
The main reason that height can be a good clue to style essences: face length sometimes corresponds to height.
So ultimately, your face length may be the better clue to your essences:
Having a long face means a decent chance of having Ethereal, Natural, or Dramatic
Having a short face means a decent chance of having Gamine, Ingenue, or sometimes Romantic
Moderate-length faces can suggest Classic and sometimes Romantic—or a combination of longer and shorter essences
Importantly, though, face length doesn’t guarantee having certain essences.
And the features that are probably most relevant for determining our style types—eyes, brows, and lips—don’t seem related to height at all.
Takeaway: Face length is probably a better (though still imperfect) clue to your essences than height. But your internal facial features, and your face’s vibes, matter much more.
In Summary
Height can be a useful clue to style essences—especially if you’re very short or very tall, or your face shape strongly corresponds to your height
But even if you’re short, there’s a chance you don’t have any Gamine or Ingenue
And even if you’re tall, there’s a chance you don’t have any Ethereal, Dramatic, or Natural
Ultimately, your most harmonious styling is what determines your essences, not your height
Part 2: Speculative thoughts
There is an additional way that height can MAYBE be useful, although I need to think more about it.
Specifically, I’ve observed that if a tall person has a short-appearing face, then sometimes their height is maybe a clue that they don’t actually have much (or any) Gamine or Ingenue.
An example is Romantic Ethereal Dramatic Miranda Kerr:
Miranda Kerr’s face definitely doesn’t appear elongated, and yet she’s quite tall (sources say 5’9’’). With her highly Romantic Ethereal beauty, this dress feels really harmonious for her, and her small amount of Dramatic makes the graphic choker work. (I need to verify if she has a little bit of a fourth essence—since this moderate hair seems to suit her, Classic is a good contender).
Before I typed Miranda, I’d guessed she’d be highly Gamine. To me, her face has many stereotypical Gamine qualities. But if you study photos of her, you may find like I do that highly Romantic Ethereal (and a little Dramatic) is her best look.
Miranda Kerr is a good example of how you don’t want to type people based on stereotypes: you don’t want to assume they have a ton of Gamine (or Ingenue) simply because they look young or have a short or round face!
Takeaway: if your face apppears stereotypically Gamine or Ingenue, but you’re quite tall, then your height might be a clue that you aren’t highly Gamine or Ingenue.
Of course, I’d take that principle with a major grain of salt, since often people who look like stereotypical Gamines or Ingenues do have a lot of those essences, despite being tall (Mariah Carey being a good example, as we saw above).
Ultimately, people of any height can have any style type.
Part 3: Can your height clash with your essences?
What if you’re tall but your face is mostly Gamine? Or short but your face is mostly Ethereal?
Can tall people pull off cropped Gamine silhouettes? Can short people wear floor-length Ethereal pieces?
In my view, definitely!
This is because people tend to look most harmonious when they match their styling (hair, makeup, outfits) to their face, rather than their body.
Why it makes sense to dress for your face:
Humans are more wired to focus on faces than bodies. We have a whole brain region (fusiform face area) devoted to processing faces, and not one for processing bodies.
Most people would probably find it reasonable to match their makeup and hair to the vibe of their face, given that makeup goes directly onto the face, and hair is directly adjacent to it. So if you match your makeup and hair to your face but your clothes to your body type, that could (arguably) end up looking like a mismatch.
Often your clothes will partly obscure the contours of your body, anyway, and this is less often true for faces.
Body typing systems that focus mostly on the body’s physical characteristics seem reductive. Such systems overlook a tremendously important (arguably the most important!) component of fashion: fashion isn’t just about literal shapes. It’s about what those shapes make you feel and the vibes they convey. Fashion is highly emotional and figuratively meaningful—just like the style essences in our faces.
Face vs. height??
Point 4 above explains why, in my view, face defeats height when it comes to dressing harmoniously.
Ultimately, fashion is psychological and emotional; it communicates moods and vibes. And faces tend to be much more psychological, much more communicative of moods and vibes, than our bodies. So, from that lens, it makes more sense to match your fashion primarily to your face, rather than your height.
That said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making your height a factor, even a huge factor, in how you dress.
Ultimately, you should wear what makes you feel good, and what makes sense to you. And if that means really relying on certain silhouettes that match your height, even if they don’t suit your style essences, then I think that’s great—style analysis is just one view of beauty.
In my opinion, it’s a very good view, but ultimately the question of what is most beautiful is just that—opinion-based.
Standing tall or short
I suspect for many people, it’s pretty easy to get behind the idea that tall people can look amazing in cropped silhouettes (show off those long limbs!)
But what about the opposite: if a short person wears a maxi dress, for instance, does that “clash” with their petite stature?
Again, we’re solidly in opinion-based territory, so some people may say yes.
But especially if a short person has a ton of Ethereal, Dramatic, or Natural, they may find they’re very flattered by elongation—long garments will echo the long shapes of the face, creating harmony.
Wearing elongated clothes can sometimes also increase the appearance of height, if that’s something you want.
Given the association of height with models, it’s important to note that there’s so much beauty in short stature. Short heights are often regarded as cute, pretty, sweet. And average heights have the appeal of balance and moderation. And tall heights have the appeal of appearing striking or dignified. None of these are inherently superior.
So, while it may be controversial, looking taller in clothing isn’t an imperative goal of dressing.
It’s totally fine if that is your goal. But just like style essences, there’s not more inherent beauty in any height vs. another.
Future posts will likely focus much more on faces than bodies. But it’s possible there’ll be more about height and body shape, too. :)
